I’ve got a problem. It’s an interesting problem, so having the problem is not a problem, but I’m having trouble figuring out why none of the approaches I’m using is working.

You see, I’ve got excess studio space, and I can’t use all the equipment I have in it at once, and neither can Ruth Solomon or Marion Steele, who are already associated with the incubator.

I keep talking to individual local designer / makers (as I come upon them) about the incubator, about what it has to offer in terms of studio space (light, warmth, water, equipment, collaboration, etc. etc.) and about putting their work in the sales space of the incubator. But they aren’t coming by, and they aren’t putting their work in the space, and I need to find out why and fix it.

All through December, I thought they were probably out and about doing shows every week and too busy with that and the holidays to come over and check us out. But the first week of January is almost over, and I have e-mailed several designer makers (OK, not all the ones I originally contacted….yet) and …nothing.

I need to know where to look to find enough of them to fill up the space and to really stock the sales space with a variety of work. I tell everyone who comes into the space, and they all know someone appropriate. I’ve heard of people doing all kinds of work I would love to have in the shop, handmade paper, screen printed fabric and home furnishing, marvelous hand-tied dyeing, felting,… the list goes on and on.

What do I need to offer and who do I need to offer it to? Obviously, I haven’t come up with the right answers so far. Would you all please consider offering me a suggestion? Tell me a designer / maker I should talk to, tell me someone who is looking for studio space. If you work from home, tell me what you would be looking for if you decided to get a studio space. If you did shows before Christmas and have work left over, why is putting it at Pocktorian not something you’re motivated to take action on?

Amended: It’s amazing how writing on this blog inspires me to take actions I probably should have take a long time ago. I just wrote the Costume and Textile Association to join (after knocking myself on the forehead several times while saying “Duh!”).

I’ve been imagining what I want people to see when they come into Pocktorian Textiles, now that I can include some furnishings in that imagining. Before I could include furnishings in my imaginings, I was imagining a single dress rack, a hat rack for the wall, a mirror, and a tiny picnic table with clotheslines strung all about otherwise.

I already know that we’ll have an A-frame chalkboard announcing our existence and whatever events are going on outside the Looses entrance. That will direct them to the stairs in the back, where there will be a poster urging people onward. And then we have to get them inside the first of the two rooms, the sales room, probably with another A-frame.

Inside, on the wall, will be posted what we’re looking for. That will be resident designer / makers if we still have room for some, and if we don’t there will be a waiting list designer / makers can get onto. Also we’ll be posting items that we want to offer: hats, if we don’t have any hats; bags, if we don’t have any bags; pillows, if we don’t have any pillows, as well as things like handspun yarn, if we don’t have any of that, or hand-dyed yarn, if we don’t have any. And also what we want to have but don’t have for the studio, whether we can afford it yet or not, like a spinning wheel, for example. Maybe someone will loan it to us. Or, dare we hope, donate it?

Also on the walls will be the latest sketches from our designers, what they expect to be making in the next week. That will be next to a special area containing all the new stuff made in the incubator or received from designer /makers outside the incubator in the last week.

I got a camera for Christmas already, and I know just what I will use it for. Look out, Norwich, there’s going to be a part of the wall where we’ll be posting pictures I’ve taken of Norwich street style, and you can bet that anyone who buys something in the shop and puts it on will get the chance to have their picture added to the wall.

I got a great phone call today from an excellent Norwich designer who will be having some of her work in the sales room. I think I want to wait to tell people who it is, though, because I want to get some picture files from her and do a whole post about her. There, you have a hint. It’s a she. (Big fat hint, huh?)